I first mentioned Nanami Paper in this post from Aug 2014. Since then I have heard great things about the Seven Seas Writer notebook. It’s a lined notebook, with 480 pages of Tomoe River paper. I’ve checked periodically and they have always been out of stock. But a month ago the notebook was in stock so I jumped at the chance to get one. And I bought a few accessories too.

I ordered the notebook plus 4 other items on April 22 and it was on my desk at work by May 1. Shipping was $18 US. The entire order came to just under $70 US.

The items were packaged very well in foam and kraft paper, and then within these kraft paper envelopes.

From left to right: The yellow Seven Seas Writer slipcase, with the notebook inside; a blue Hold-On pen loop; a clear plastic writing mat with grid; a brown vinyl notebook cover; and a clear plastic notebook cover.

The Seven Seas Writer comes in this slip case. The pink paper you can see peeking out is blotting paper.

The notebook, on the left, is bound with a simple heavy cardboard cover, in black. Nice and plain, but a cover is recommended.

The notebook is thread bound and so lays flat upon opening, with no stress to the spine. Gloriously flat!

This is the MF Faux Leather A5 Notebook Cover. It is more expensive than the Cheap Notebook Cover (which I will discuss shortly) but considerably less expensive than the Gfeller notebook cover, which is Kip Leather and wonderful, I’ve heard. I chose the MF because of the price: just under $20. It has a bookmark and looks pretty good. I also bought the Cheap Notebook Cover because of the price: $2.50.

Here is the MF cover open. I couldn’t help but think what a great piece to start a Fauxdori with. And the Seven Seas Notebook slips in beautifully.

And here is the filled MF cover. I quite like the double row of stitching. And of course the bookmark.

Here is the notebook inside the Cheap Notebook Cover (sorry for the glare). It’s fine too but let’s face it: the MF cover looks better. This Cheap cover fits standard A5 notebooks so I’m sure I will find a use for it, as I have a few of those (ahem).

I also bought the writing mat, which is exactly that: a mat upon which to write. You can slip it in between the pages of the notebook as they are super thin, one of the characteristics of Tomoe River paper. And when you are close to the bottom of the page you can use the mat to rest your wrist. The Nanami web site suggests using your smart phone to the same end if you don’t have a writing mat.

I have a thing for pen loops. I want every single one of my notebooks to have a pen loop. And this Hold-On Clever Pen Loop for Notebooks just might be the ticket. Too bad you can only buy 5 at a time. Seeing how great they work I should have bought more.

They are $3.60 US. And the website shows you how to make a “hack” for it, if you don’t want to get the sticky adhesive all over your notebook cover. A non-permanent solution, if you will. Luckily I had some Post-It Tabs handy and followed the instructions.

I stuck the tab on the inside of the back cover. I then stuck the Hold-On pen loop to the tab. To truly avoid sticky residue I only removed the backing from the pen loop to the width of the tab (got out the old craft knife). The sticky back of the pen loop is super sticky and will not come off the tab very easily. Whereas the tab is easily removable but not so easy as to fall off. Ingenious!

Here’s a quick ink test on the back page. Notice how sharp each example is. The paper is smooth like glass and there is no bleedthrough. There is a bit of a wait for drying time but that’s what the blotting paper is for.

There is definite show through but as my sister says, “I LIKE show through!” I realize some don’t and if you don’t just use one side of the paper.

I am thrilled with this new notebook. The service from David at Nanami was excellent and the products are superb. The feel of the Tome River paper is exquisite; smooth and buttery. There’s a reason it’s so popular with fountain pen enthusiasts. And if you want to try a sample David can help you out there too; he offers 6 sheets (3 white, 3 cream) of Tomoe River paper anywhere in the world for $3 and free shipping. Yes you read that right. You really should try it out because it is amazing.

No wonder there is a purchase limit of 5 for the Seven Seas notebooks. Get one while they last.

As some of you know I frequent the forum on fpgeeks.com. In the Notebook Covers thread a user named Michael posted pictures of some leather notebook covers he was working on. I saw this purple leather and fell in love.

I contacted Michael and he was willing to make me one, in my preferred size (8.5 x 5.5) and with the capability of holding 3 notebooks. And he chronicled his work in the Notebook Covers thread, which was very cool. I contacted Michael on June 7 and had the finished product in my hands on July 14.

The finished product! Of course it was empty when it arrived but Michael measured it to fit my preferred notebooks exactly (with overhang so the notebooks don’t slip out the side).

I love the “hand made” charm he attached to the spine.

The inside is a beautiful turquoise-y green, which I was also able to choose. I told Michael I wanted to keep a maximum of three notebooks in the cover so he sent me an extra piece of elastic for the extra two booklets. Even though I’ve covered this before I thought I would go over how to insert three notebooks into a cover of this style.

Here you can see two of the notebooks attached with the elastic threaded through the middle of each book. Both books then lay flat, next to each other. Treating the notebooks as one unit, it slides under the attached elastic in the notebook cover.

And in the photo above you can see I’m sliding the third notebook underneath the attached elastic, so that the elastic will sit in the middle of the third notebook. When closed all three will sit perfectly.

I really love this notebook and it was delightful working with Michael to customize it. He is a real gem, a meticulous craftsman and enthusiastic innovator who will try his best to accommodate even the craziest design. He’s also very honest about what he can and cannot do and often just jumps in and tries anyway. He redid the green on the inside cover twice before he was happy with it. If you are interested I wholeheartedly recommend him and encourage you to contact him on the fountain pen geeks forum. Michael if you are reading this, thanks again!!

I was fooling around with my ARC hole punch today and made a custom notebook for a game I’m playing at the moment. It involves the care and feeding of dragons and there is a lot of information to remember. I didn’t want to use one of my many empty journals as I don’t know how long I will be interested in this game and I would hate to “waste” a journal on my notes for a game I no longer play. My ARC rings, some scrapbooking paper and my ARC hole punch solved that problem.

Here’s a close up of the cover. I found the old dragon map online and the egg sticker I already had in my collection.

It is an unusual size; it was dictated by the size of scrapbooking paper I wanted to use. I put purple lined paper and blank, brown craft paper in it, cut to size.

I also used different scrapbooking paper for the dividers, with tabs at the top.

The rings are probably too big but they are the smallest ones I have.

When I finished this notebook I started putting together Ray Blake’s Monthly PlanPack. Ray Blake is a wonderful artist who has many, many free printables on his website, My Life All in One Place. He also makes Midori-style notebooks for sale. I bought one and wrote about it in this post in October of last year. This PlanPack was super easy to print and trim.

Here is the cover I created for the insert. I didn’t cut the edges properly so some of them stick out, but it doesn’t bother me. And it’s brand new so it doesn’t lay flat yet.

The printable produces two booklets. It starts with a blank month.

Followed by 6 blank weekly layouts.

And then the rest of the booklet is devoted to lists for whatever you choose.

I am not planning to jump into this format right away; I’m happy with my Flex Planner. But I have a lot of fun putting these type of things together and it might come in useful if I move into a smaller purse (which I dream about but never actually happens). Check out Ray’s selection; he makes truly professional-looking and incredibly useful printables for your Midori or Midori-style notebook covers, in a variety of sizes.

So last night I finished my current journal, the Pierre Belvedere refill in the purple journal cover, featured in this post. Very pleased with myself. I started it in July of this year; six months worth of words.

I’m impressed with how the journal cover has held up. It’s been in constant use since July. I carry it with me in my bag everyday and from room to room at home (yes I just admitted that. Sigh.)

The last page – right down to the bottom!

The purple cover on the journal shelf, snuggled in between his green brother and a filled refill.

I didn’t have to think about what my next journal would be; I was so excited when I made my “fauxdori” I knew it would be the next in line.

Yes I’ve been anxious to get into this one.

Just started to write last night, before bed. Will add more tonight.

I’ve been using my Jinhao 126 in black and silver (more on that pen in an upcoming post) and am starting to like it. It’s taken some time and effort but I think I’m finally there. Like breaking in a new saddle.

I bought these refills at Coles and I just love them. They are also by Studio Oh! and are called Whimsy. The typewriter one says “Write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” They were on sale for $6.99 for three, down from $9.99. So I bought three!!

The other two packs unopened. The Whimsy pack looks smaller than the Flowers pack but I think it must be the angle of the photo. Because I measured them against each other and they are identical in size.

So that’s my new journal. Very excited to write in it. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Many moons ago I was using a spiralbound planner from Women’s Success Choice. When international shipping took a huge jump I couldn’t justify the cost of the planner inserts anymore. So I moved on to other planners and left the beautiful leather cover for the Success Choice planner behind. It is a beautiful piece of leather and I have tried (unsuccessfully) to find a notebook that would fit it. And then I saw this video…

Now darkchild57 is not the sort of person I usually follow on Youtube. He seems to be a bit of a knife fanatic. But he is also a leather journal maker and he posted the above video on how to make your own refillable leather journal cover using elastic cord. I liked this one because there were three elastic loops on the inside, instead of the usual Midori-esque one. This way I could fit each notebook on it’s own loop instead of having to use elastics. And when I thought about where to buy a piece of leather, the Success Choice leather cover popped into my brain and presto! I had a project.

Following the instructions was surprisingly easy. I pressed pause a lot so I wouldn’t miss anything. I used a small screwdriver to punch the holes in the leather as I do not have a leather awl. The screwdriver’s diameter was smaller than the elastic cord so the hardest part was getting the cord through the hole. It took me about an hour start to finish. I’m really pleased with the result.

The elastic cord is rainbow coloured – I couldn’t find any black in the right thickness at my local Michael’s. I don’t know how I feel about the rainbow. I think I would prefer all black, for the outside at least. I may try to dye the cord black using a Sharpie marker. We’ll see.

The fairy door charm on the front was a find on my recent trip to the States and the teapot is a pin whose clasp was broken.

Here you can see the inside elastic work.

And here you can see the outside elastic work.

I inserted three notebooks, one on each inside elastic. The edges don’t line up when the cover is open, but they do when it is closed. I like the effect of seeing a bit of the other two notebooks when you first open the cover. The notebooks are from Studio Oh! I purchased them at Indigo Books.

The first page of the first notebook. Have to start off with a good quote. I will probably make this my daily journal when I finish my current one. I really love the paper.

The front cover of the second notebook.

Front cover of the third notebook.

The back cover of the third journal, tucked into the leather cover. The spiral notebooks from Success Choice were designed to tuck in like this; for this application it is not necessary but looks a bit neater I suppose.

Here’s the fairy door open. I cut washi tape to size and fit it in. The charm is rather heavy so bangs about a bit but can be easily moved out of the way of the covers so that writing is not affected.

So there you have it. I’m really pleased with how my recycling efforts turned out. It feels good to use what I already have to make something beautiful and functional.

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